There is clear evidence that Petland obtaines puppies from puppy mills. During investigations of puppie mills two of Petland’s “private breeders.” were visited. During the investigation of the breeders, it was found that the dogs were never let out of their cages which caused neurotic behavior due to long confinement. The dogs were flithy, had maggot-infested food, timid dogs housed together with aggressive dogs, untreated wounds, broken bones, mange, open sores, and rotted teeth–conditions causing the dogs tremendous pain and long-term suffering. A former truck driver for a Petland breeder was told by her boss to throw a live puppy into a trash burner because he was sick. Many of the dogs purchased at Petland contain many health problems. This is not surprising, as puppy mills are also known for breeding animals with genetic defects as well as breeding dogs as often as possible, causing the mother to wear out and die young after producing many litters of sickly puppies.
Don’t be fooled by any papers that may come with a Petland puppy from a Kennel Club, as the papers usualy only say that the two parent dogs were of the same breed, and this is usually only confirmed by the breeder’s word. Parent dogs can be toothless, lame, undernourished, have serious genetic defects, and still have their litters of puppies registered.
All this abuse is made worse by the fact that it is completely unnecessary. Petland sells animals for one reason only–profit. In the US year after year, a conservative estimate of 3 million dogs and 4 million cats are killed in U.S. animal shelters due to lack of homes. It’s estimated that a quarter of the dogs killed in shelters are purebreds. The vast majority of the animals killed in shelters are healthy, friendly, and young.
While our local shelters and rescue groups struggle valiantly to rescue homeless animals, spending their energy and money to save innocent lives, Petland’s contribution is to pump mass-produced animals into our community, as well as similar communities all over the country.
